Kari's Kave: The End!

Yay...Corpse in the Crystal Ball is done!

or is it...

So you finish a book. Now what? That's the question we are faced with as authors. Some people write a book in its entirety, and then go through and polish the book. Others, like myself, write a chapter and edit a chapter, then write another chapter, then edit that chapter and so on. I can't seem to move forward without editing as I go. That doesn't mean I won't be going over the book as a whole, filling in more rich setting and descriptions and metaphors and funny lines, etc, but that's what I call adding the sparkle.

Sometimes that initial approach of basic editing as I go, however, can slow down my creativity. There's something about being in the moment and writing like hell and moving forward until the basic plot is down that is so inspiring. Yet sometimes when we write that fast, we miss a few things. I like to digest what I've written by going over it a few times before moving on. That way I really know which direction I want to move forward in. Also, each time I go over something, I always end up adding some really cool stuff in.

That's the fun part of writing a book for me. It's all in the polishing ... the sparkle. I never love a book I write as I'm writing it initially. I always think, "Oh man, this sucks." Only after I've gone over and over and over the book, adding in the really funny lines and cozy descriptions and cute tidbits do I start to think, "Oh wow, this isn't so bad."

But there does come a time when we need to say, "This is the best I can do at this time in my life," and be done. Be proud of the book, and free to move on. That is so hard to do. Every single time I go over a book, I find something I end up changing. I think that's true in general for all authors or artists or creative people, period. There will always be something you think of later that you wish you had added or done differently. I guess it's all about learning to let go. It is what it is, and then move on.

Of course, I'm not there yet with this book :-) I'm somewhere between "this sucks" and "this isn't so bad" while waiting for my CP to inspire some of those really fun lines, cool descriptions, and cute tidbits.

So when is The End really The End for all of you? Do you let go and move on? Do you reread something you wrote and keep longing for another chance to fix something? Or are you an "It is what it is, and I'm cool with it" kind of writer who truly is done with a book after they write The End? When do you truly let go?

Inquiring minds want to know :-)